Brazil – The recent Palm Beach vacation of Brazil’s most prominent Jewish leader ended abruptly when police arrested him on charges he shoplifted neckties at swanky stores on Worth Avenue.
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Rabbi Henry Sobel blames pills to treat his insomnia and depression for behavior unbecoming a rabbi.
The stunning fall from public grace of Sobel — the charismatic leader who faced down Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and has become a key player for interfaith work in Latin America — threatens his leadership in that country’s largest synagogue.
Sobel was arrested after a Louis Vuitton shopkeeper said he took a $170 red tie without paying. Police found four more ties in his car from other stores.
After his release on a $3,000 bond, Sobel checked himself into a Sao Paulo hospital. His doctors later said he was taking unidentified but powerful insomnia and antidepressant medications before his March 23 arrest.
Wearing a hospital gown and a yarmulke perched on his mop of gray hair, Sobel held a press conference at the hospital. ”The Henry Sobel who committed these acts is not the Henry Sobel that you know,” said Sobel, 63. “I want to apologize for the troubles I created.”[miamihearld]